Standing on lush green prairie grass under a cool spring drizzle near the Mima Mounds Natural Area Preserve south of Olympia on Saturday, it’s difficult to imagine that just about two and a half years earlier, the whole landscape was blackened grass and charred trees.
And in just a few months, summer heat will bring wildfire risk back to the area.
“We are not immune to wildfire, and we always like to say that this time of year, where it’s cold and gray and rainy, right as we’re coming out of spring and heading into the hot, warm, dry days of summer. It’s the best time for every one of our homeowners to get ready for fire season,” said Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz during a press conference on Saturday, where she announced the Washington state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is expanding its Wildfire Ready Neighbors Program into Thurston, Pierce and Mason counties this spring.
The program is a collaborative effort between DNR and regional partners to connect residents with experts and tools to help them take proactive steps to better protect their homes and surrounding property from wildfire.
With the increase in wildfires in the area in the last decade or so, conservation districts in Western Washington, such as the Thurston County Conservation District, have been advocating for opportunities to engage in community wildfire preparedness, according to Thurston Conservation District Executive Director Sarah Moorehead.
“We have been trying to champion loud and clear that it is not just an east side issue, that wildfire on the west side is increasingly an important thing for us to focus on and invest in light of climate change,” Moorehead said.
Wildfire and prairie landscapes historically “go hand in hand,” Moorehead said, adding that most people associate wildfire risk with forests. “A lot of people haven’t thought about wildfire in these open grassland contexts, and that’s one of the things the Bordeaux Community has really stepped up (on),” she said.
The Bordeaux Ranch Community has taken significant steps towards improving the defensible space on their properties and working with the fire department to protect the area from any future fires in the years since the community was threatened by the Mima Road Fire in September 2020, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
That fire ultimately burned 268 acres of prairie land in the area, according to a DNR news release.
Three years prior, in August 2017, the Scatter Creek Fire burned about 385 acres, mostly within the Scatter Creek Wildlife area, threatened about 100 homes and destroyed four structures.
“The Scatter Creek Fire taught us that we really need to step up our game in pre-planning and with other evacuation planning and programs like this,” said West Thurston Fire Authority Chief Rob Smith, referring to the Wildfire Ready Neighbors Program, on Saturday. “We have a saying in the fire service: ‘What is predictable is preventable.’ Now we have a tool in place that can define how we go about preparing our homes.”
Saturday’s press conference was held outside a residence on Mima Road Southwest that survived the Mima Road fire due to a buffer between the home and flammable materials like grass, trees and shrubs.
“I had no idea when I moved in here that there had been a fire,” homeowner Sable Bruce, who purchased the property after the Mima Road Fire, said Saturday. “I think it’s really easy to be afraid of fire, so something that I’m really excited about with the Wildfire Ready Neighbors (Program) is having something proactive to do … instead of just being afraid.”
The program also gives her a means of working with her neighbors, Bruce said, “Because if wildfire happens here, it’s going to affect my neighbors.”
The Wildfire Ready Neighbors Program offers free online resources as well as free home consultations and personalized wildfire ready plans, which include proposed actions homeowners, renters and landowners can take to decrease fire risk on their property.
On Saturday, West Thurston Fire Battalion Chief Tom Fitzgerald walked Bruce and her family through a consultation visit of their property, which can be viewed on The Chronicle’s Facebook page.
Wildfire Ready Neighbors was founded in 2021 and launched in six Eastern Washington counties including Chelan, Okanogan, Spokane, Yakima, Kittitas and Klickitat counties before the three Western Washington counties were added to the program this spring.
To date, more than 4,000 residents across the state have signed up to receive a free, custom action plan and have pledged to take over 20,000 actions to prepare their homes and property for wildfire, according to a news release from DNR.
Thurston County residents can learn more and sign up for a consultation at https://wildfireready.dnr.wa.gov/.
